April 1, 2025 • 33 mins
Tim opens the show with KFI’s own Michael Monks, who talks about the LA City Council vote on homelessness management. And the federal court and other accounting audits are mad at LAHSA, due to poor accounting practices. // April 1st 2025, may be remembered as the day LAHSA died. Is LA County going to do something about L.A. Homeless problems. Michael Monks has more detailed on the vote that could change everything. Was it mismanagement or corruption? // Traffic is always a nightmare in L.A. but tonight will be even worse due to three events happening around the same time within a five-mile radius of one another. // Latest on the Michigan couple locked up in Mexico over a dispute with their timeshare.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's KFI AM six forty and you're listening to The
Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It is The Conway Show.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
We start with breaking news, breaking news. The homeless problem
in La County has been solved. And here to tell
us the details, Michael Monks, So it's finally over the
homeless problem.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Don't put me on the spot to participate in your
April fools ruse. But they have made a significant change
in the way they're gonna deal with it. That is
not in April fools. I mean, you may think it's foolish, okay,
but they have at the county level voted just seconds
ago in favor of creating their own homeless department and
leaving the La Homeless Services Authority basically which they share
(00:43):
with the city.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Okay, so that's they refer to that as LASA they do. Okay.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Now, loss has got to be pissed because for a
long time they've been the king of homelessness and they
have not done a good enough job according to the county.
The city likes them, but the county not so much.
I'll tell you who doesn't like them.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
The federal court is mad at them and various accounting
audits are mad at LASA. The way, why is that
because there has been some poor accounting practices. There are
no official allegations of any fraud or any illegal activity
taking place there. They're just saying, look, your books aren't
managed well. We aren't necessarily aware of the outcomes that
you're seeking because you don't document them. When you pay
(01:22):
these third party homeless service providers a significant sum of
money to do something, we don't know where the money's going.
Some of this stuff isn't accounted for at all. And
the latest audit that came out really pushed County Supervisor
Lindsay Horvath over the edge where she said, it's time
to act now. We need to pull our money out
of LASA, create our own internal department at the county
(01:43):
level where we can provide direct and more oversight.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Okay, isn't that won't that be more of the same? Look,
I hope it's not. But isn't another isn't it another
big government agency taken over another government agency?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I think people across La County are right to be
cynical about any suggestions on how we're going to address
and fix homelessness. But the other thing is voters in
La County just months ago voted in favor of increasing
the sales tax that goes into effect today.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Right.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
All of that is to fund homeless and housing projects, right,
homelessness prevention. And it won by fifteen points, by the way,
So people are eager to see a resolution of this.
So I suppose, on one hand, yes, cynicism. On the
other it may be nice to see something drastic taking place,
to say, look, the buck is going to stop somewhere
(02:33):
else now and we're going to promise different results. Supervisor
Horbet says, No, this is not bigger and more government.
It's barely even a new department. It's an expansion of.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
What we have been doing. We're just going to be
in charge of the money now.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Okay, But but I can't get down on people who
think it's just moving money from one government agency to another.
And I don't see the track record with La LASA.
I don't see the track right where La County and
both of them even combine, we haven't seen much movement.
So I don't get down on people who are skeptical. No, no,
(03:07):
not at all.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
And you're right to note combined that's county and city. Right,
that could created LASA. And so when we think about
the money the county is talking about, this is money
that was already theirs that was being put into laws.
So the city was also putting money into LASA. This
has been your taxpayer money all along. Right, it's billions
of dollars, billions and billions of dollars. And yes, this
(03:28):
last audit said there's about two point three million dollars
that are accounted for. Technically, we know they're out there somewhere,
but we don't know all of the details.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
That's not chump change.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Were two point three million or billion billion billion, okay, yeah,
two point three billion dollars out.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
There, they could not properly figure out what was done for. Right,
Look if we if we all voted to raise the
sales tax by a quarter cent or half cent, it
was a quarter cent, now it's going to be a
half cent, and we saw a lot of improvement in homelessness.
I think we'd all be you know, thrilled that we're
paying another you know, quarter percent or half a cent,
(04:02):
but we just don't see exactly. I think you'd even
turn a blind eye to I don't care how they're
paying these third party providers. There's no more almost people
sleeping in front of my kids.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Exactly. I don't care where the money goes as.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
There's this bad accounting that's going on and a lack
of real results. Now LASSA would come back and say, look,
we said we were going to lower the homeless count
in La County and now they say this year will
be the second year in a row that they've been
able to do that. But is it demonstrable to the
naked eye? I mean, can you see and the underpasses
that you drive through outside of the business districts that
you frequent Arthur Park, are you noticing any differences? And
(04:34):
if you're not, then that's a problem for LASA. Lossa's director,
Valicia Kellum Adams came to the county Board of Supervisors
meeting today and said, look, you know everything that you want,
we're doing. We're doing everything that you want. She doesn't
want this relationship to end. Five members of the La
City Council came to the County Board of Supervisors meeting
today and said, please don't break up with us.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
On that sage.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Yes, well, what's desperate from their perspective is the county
does have a much larger government than the city. It
has a bigger budget, it has more people, and has
a lot more people already at the county level dedicated
to homeless works, whereas the city only has about a dozen.
According to a city councilman, Nitthia Rahman, who spoke today
and said, look, don't leave us, don't break up with us,
(05:17):
we need you, and Supervisor Horvath's shot back, look, we
basically pay for all of this anyway. We pay two
thirds of this situation. We're going to bring our money
in house and keep it. And now it leaves the
city with a question. If it's the LA homeless services
authorities at just the city, now it's going to be
a big responsibility, and it might motivate them to have
(05:40):
to take a similar move right, and they're going to
have their budget drastically cut. The city's already struggling financially,
so it's a big, big ass. The county will handle
a lot of money for cities in the county, including LA,
so based on the homeless count for example, how many
homeless people are in your city that might determine how
(06:01):
some of this funding is given.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
But and again, Michael Monks is with us. The La
County supervisors just voted. Was it unanimous or was it close?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
It was for to zero, with Supervisor Holly Mitchell abstaining.
She had some questions about the timing and whether we
were moving too fast on this, and so she decided
to abstain herts it was unanimous.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
It was otherwise unanimous.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And how much of then the budget will the La
County will LA County withhold then from Lawson.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Well, all of the money that they give the LASSO
will now be brought back into the county. And the
way that it will work is they hope to have
a CEO, a director of this new department by July first,
and by January of next year, all of the money
in the county was previously giving to LASSA will be
back in the county's coffers, including all of the money
that is generated from this new sales tax that goes
into effect today. They're not going to get any of it.
(06:49):
That is going to be handled strictly by the county.
And that's the money that will be divvied up among
the cities based on their homeless count in some capacity,
some percentage.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Of that, how many people work for Lawson. You know,
I don't know the exact count, but it's hundreds. So
they're gonna have to cut a lot of people.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah, and it's also possible that some of the people
who work at loss of will work in the new
County department.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Isn't that one hundred percent probable? I think it's one
hundred percent probable. In fact, I mean, don't just move.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
We'll just move loss OF people off their payroll to
the county payroll, and it'll be the same problem, the
same people, the same homelessness.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Supervisor Horvath said today that I want to be clear
that it's not the staff of LASA that has created
a lot of these problems. We're with you, and so
I think that does open the door to some of
those folks being part of whatever this new department finally
looks like when it is propped up on January the first.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
So if that is that is true, and I believe you,
I think that's going to happen as well. Isn't there
a sense of a stink of desperation for five city
council members to go to La County to say, please
don't cut Lossa's budget, and then they know that the
loss of employees are just going to move over and
get paid by the county anyway, Yeah, and I think
(08:01):
they're Then why did they show up?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Because if you take if LASA is dismantled, LA does
not have any type of input necessarily, at least not
formally the city the city the city in the way
that the county decides to handle its homeless funding. Right now,
LASA is co governed by the county and the city
through a board of Directors where each government entity has
an equal number of board representatives. Okay, So again that's
(08:27):
why when you hear folks from the county complaining about
loss or the city complaining about LASA, you are LASA.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Okay. But let me ask you a question.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Is I know LASA is Los Angeles and they worry
about the Los Angeles homeless in the city of LA.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Oh no, well no, they do the entire the entire capacity,
because the county is involved with it.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
A lot of the homeless.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
I mean, there's about seventy five thousand people roughly homeless
in the county, more than half of them are in
the City of Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
But where does LASA get their money from? Is it
all from the La County or does something come from
La City exactly, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
It is shared.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
More of it comes from the county, but that's because
it is a bigger entity. So they also get some
federal funding. And so even in this move that the
county has done, they acknowledge that LASA, whatever it looks like,
after all is said and done, would still be responsible
for certain things through the federal government, such as counting
the homeless people.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
So will losses still get their money from La City
right now?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I think the city has a decision to make because
if the city is putting in a certain amount of money,
but the other partner in that is not putting anything in,
how far is that money going to go? In fact,
city Councilman Tim Mcoscar, who represents you know, the port
cities in Los Angeles, he was one of the council
members who came groveling to the County Board of Supervisors
(09:44):
today and said, look, you can't when you break up
a dysfunctional family and create two dysfunctional families.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
These are his words.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
It's the basically what he's saying is the children who suffer,
but you know, the homeless services that will suffer.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Could this be the end of LASA. Oh yeah, it
could be absolutely no question about it. Okay, all right, monks,
thanks for coming. Hey, As a matter of fact, I
got a million more questions. Can you stay with us? Yeah, okay,
we want to talk about this is a big issue
in the in the City of Los Angeles, the County
of Los Angeles. This could be the end of LASA.
This could be the end of the organization who spend
(10:18):
billions of dollars on homelessness and now they could be
going away. This is a big day in Los Angeles,
in LA County, in La City. Remember April first, twenty
twenty five could be the day LASA died. And so
we'll come back and talk more about the Michael Monks
is a major story in La City and LA County.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Michael Monks is with us, and this is April first,
twenty twenty five. It may be remembered as the day
LASA died. And welcome back to kfive Monks. You got, monks.
This is a big deal.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
It's a very big deal because this now creates a
lot of one opportunity for the county to try some
different things to address homelessness, but it's also going to
force the City of Los Angeles' hands on how they
deal with what their plans were for the La Homeless
Services Authority, because they were co partners in this, and
now one of the partners has left the building, and
(11:20):
that leaves the City of Los Angeles, which has more
than half of the homeless people in the county within it.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
And how do we get to this level of anger
at las? How did how did La County you know,
sniff around? It was a judge that did this or
an audit?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, well there was a.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
There was an audit last year that came out first,
and it did not look good. The most recent one
that came out in March was ordered by a federal
judge who has been dealing with a lawsuit that involves
some downtown LA business owners who said to the county
and the city, you're not doing enough. That's commonly referred
to as the Alliance settlement. It was the La Alliance
(11:58):
for Human Rights that sued both governments, and now because
of that lawsuit, the city and the county they are
mandated to create a certain number of shelter beds for
homeless people every single year. Now, that is an ongoing case,
and there's a judge, David Carter, who monitors that at
the federal level. He ordered an audit because they couldn't
get their hands on the financial details from LASA, and
(12:20):
this latest audit that came out just showed such poor accounting.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Poor accounting or corruption.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Well, I don't think anybody has officially leveraged, leveled any
corruption charges, any idea that there was fraud or thievery
going on, But they were saying there was mismanagement in
the way that the money is handled. I mean they're
talking about writing checks these third party service providers with
no expectations on what the goals are. For example, if
you're a if you have Conway's homeless shelter downtown right
(12:49):
and thinking about it, yeah yeah, yeah, and you get
a check for two hundred grand, you would think that
part of your proposal would say, and this many people
will stay here, and this many people we've put in school,
this many people we put in employment programs. They weren't
getting any of that wow, or they weren't getting it enough.
For about two point three billion dollars that were spent.
So that was enough to tick off Supervisor Lindsay Horvath.
(13:10):
That was the final straw for her. She served on
the board of LASA, by the way, during a lot
of this, it should be noted.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
So it could be personal.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
She says, she's seen enough. It's time for the county
to bring its share of the money back in house
so that we can watch it directly.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Okay, So lasa's budget LA Homeless Services Authority, their budget
in twenty twenty three was eight hundred and forty five million.
It's probably closer to a billion now exactly. And the
billion dollars is going to be withheld from them and
is going to stay with the county supervisors in the
new department that they create.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Well, whatever the county would be giving to LASA would
be withheld. Loss also gets money from federal grant from
the federal government, from the city government grants and that
sort of thing. Now that's their budget, a billion dollars.
That's not all that's spent on homelessness, right, because the
county spends elsewhere, the city's elsewhere on other initiative, whether.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
It's in smaller cities, spends money.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
I mean, it is just billions and billions of dollars
that are spent on homelessness every year. It's just that
LASA is at the epicenter of it. They have their
tentacles in every single activity that's taking place in some capacity,
including all of those shelters, including all of those little
programs that you see, whether it's on skid row or
out in some other city. These are the people that
help direct those programs.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
So this is a real personal insult to Alicia Adams Kellum.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Well, she's the CEO of LASA.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
She is, indeed, and she came into LASA a couple
of years ago, tapped by Mayor Karen Bass, you know,
to come in and do this, and vowed to clean
up Loss's act because it has a long history of
bad accounting and questionable results. I mean, homelessness had been
going up for several years until last year's count. So
(14:51):
she promised more transparency, more accountability, better results, and better accounting.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
That hasn't all happened. Happened.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Is Mayor Bass embarrassed that she has brought a woman
in who has could have killed LASSA.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Well, I think if I'm Mayor Bess, I'm grateful for
anybody who takes the spotlight off me for a couple
of days, you know, so like, let's let's do that.
I don't think she would feel any shame at all,
because there were I told you before we went to break,
there were five members of the La City Council who
went to the Board of Supervisors meetings today. All of
them spoke, and all of them begged the county not
to leave Felicia Kellums Adams Adams Kellum, excuse.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Me, she's how long they give her?
Speaker 3 (15:26):
She showed up as if it were public comment, which
is when she got to speak, you got one minute
like everybody else. Really, they shut off the mic like
they do on anybody else. Supervisor Catherine Barker, who chairs
the Board of Supervisors, says, let's give her another thirty
seconds since she does lead the organization mantling it was.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I mean, I thought nothing.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Nothing that because look, I'm the guy covering this, right,
I'm sure I'm mobilized at that moment. I'm ready to
get a quote, like here's a good quote that we're
gonna have to use in the stories today.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I got nothing.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Nothing, I got nothing because she was kind of recap
what they have done, and so I was surprised that
they didn't yield the floor to her at least for
five minutest. Let's hear a little bit more lost monks
a quote. Yeah, loss has been around for thirty two years. Yeah,
and the homeless issue is worse now than it was
thirty two years ago.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yes, now they would not say that.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Well, certainly by volume, yes, but it got really bad
between twenty twenty during the pandemic and about three four
years after that. But the homeless count from twenty twenty
three finally showed a little bit of a decline after
six years of an increase. And they are saying the
early results, the early analysis of this year's count will
(16:35):
show that there were fewer people as well, so it
would be two years of a decline. But these declines minimal,
are pretty modest.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Again, and if you ask any LAPD officer on the street,
have you seen the homeless count go down?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
They all say no.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Well, first you'd have to find an LAPED officer on
the street, and that's not always easy.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Okay, So this, Lysia Adams, I gotta get this Rightlysia
Adams Kellum. Her salary is four hundred and thirty thousand
dollars a year, So she makes more than the mayor,
and she makes more than the president of the United States.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
That's right. How do you think President Trump feels about.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
That she's making thirty thousand dollars more than the president
of the United States.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
It's a hefty salary. It's a large organization. What you
often hear about these quasi government groups or even government
agencies like LADWP when they bring in these high priced
CEOs like Jenie Kinez who makes seven hundred and fifty
thousand dollars leading a municipal utility.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
At the DWP.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
At the DWP, you know, the supporters of that, the
proponents of that say, look, we've got to compete with
the private sector.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
But it's like you're not the private sector though.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Is that the one that wanted seven hundred thousand dollars
in security as well?
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yes, and that has not happened yet.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
By the way, in case you're won, is there any
Is there any when you go downtown, I know you
live downtown and you speak to you know, any of
the politicians or the woman who runs LASA or the
woman who runs DWP, do you have a sense that
there's that there's anybody who who feels the.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
I guess shame.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Is there anybody in politics downtown LA who feels who
has any way to feel shame?
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I'll speak as a resident and editorialize at my own risk.
I suppose I am constantly shocked at the state in
which LA finds itself and the lack of urgency with
which people proceed to address those issues.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
There's more urgency here at KFI with getting LA City
together than there.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Is with LA City.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
That's what I mean because I watch nearly every major
government meeting that takes place. I watch your surperprisers and
the council today all at the same time. You need
to get these stories. You are it and I just
you know, And then I go home to downtown and
I think, what in the world is going on here?
And these are not stupid people. I know that it's
easy all these stupid policies. They're not dumb. I mean,
(18:51):
they're smart. They know their communities, you know, and they
can be folks see like small town politicians too.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I mean, you can see how these folks get elected. Right.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
I'm glad you live downtown because if you lived out
in Chatsworth and you were covering downtown. You'd only stick
you know, stick your beak in there every once in
a while, or you know, dip your toe into the pond.
But you live down there, you know what it's like.
You know, the street lights don't work, the homeless population
is going through the roof. Every other storefront looks like
it's for lease, and then the other, and then every
(19:19):
store that's not for lease has bars on it.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
There's trash everywhere. It's an asshole.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
And this is the second largest city in this country.
It's one of the most important cities in the entire
world because of you know, we have Hollywood, but we
also have this major port that's here. I mean, la
right matters globally, and the fact that it looks the
way it does is just so shocking, and you just
don't hear the urgency from folks about time to address it.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
There's no other city that looks like that. When you
go visit New York City, it's Chicago. Chicago's beautiful downtown Chicago.
All of these cities have pat Denver. They're all beautiful.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
They got homelessness, they got violence, you know, I mean,
big cities have these problems, but none of them are
filthy as Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, we are the king of filth and we and
LASSA also was the ones I believe that spend seven
hundred and forty thousand dollars per condo when they built
a building.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Well, they're involved in some of that low income or
homeless housing programs that that's not necessarily a loss of project,
but they do help coordinate in some capacity. There are
different organizations. That was the Wineguard Center, for example, which
is also in skid Row, that built that one, And yeah,
there are It's extremely expensive to build here and it
just raises the question, I mean, how much how fast
will all this new money go without the results we
(20:34):
want to see?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Okay, you got to come on with us more often.
This is great.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
There might be some finally, some movement in downtown LA
the way we address homelessness.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Well, we won't see this a department set up until
January first. We'll see a director hired by July, but
we won't see the full impact until next year.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Okay, that's fine, but it'll be here shortly. Got to
keep our eye on and we'll listen to you. On
Saturday Night seven and nine pm. Michael Monks reports all right,
you're the best buddy. All right, he goes Michael Monks.
When we come back, we'll tell you about the three
events that are going on downtown Los Angeles to night
that could have you in a traffic nightmare.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Traffic is a nightmare in southern California. And I think
it's worse on weekends than it is during the week.
At least during the week, you know that there's gonna
be traffic in the morning, afternoon or you know, eleven
am to two pm. You know, hit and miss with traffic,
and then it gets to be a nightmare again between
(21:37):
three point thirty four o'clock and seven o'clock. And you
know the hours to stay off the freeways during the week,
But man, on weekends you get screwed. I don't know
what the hell happened in southern California, but weekends sometimes
when I go to del Mar, I'll drive from Burbank
to del Mar. It's one hundred and forty miles or so,
(21:59):
and it takes nearly four hours, four hours, and so
I don't go down that much. You know, I'll if
I do, I'll leave at ten pm, get down there
by midnight, and then come home the next night at
ten pm or eleven pm and get home by you know,
midnight or one am, just to avoid the traffic. And
I think we all are in the same boat where
(22:22):
we constantly avoid going out and doing things that we
like to do because of traffic. You know, we always
check traffic whenever you go to do anything. You know,
you can go to Palm Springs, Oh, let me see
on ways how long that is.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
You're going to go to Las Vegas. Oh, let me
see how long that is? You know where traffic is.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Traffic is always on our minds always, and we hate
being stuck in it. It's not great. It is a nightmare.
And today, especially in downtown Los Angeles, it's going to
be a problem for a lot of people. We got
three events going on tonight tonight in downtown La Listen up.
Speaker 6 (23:01):
We have three events all starting between the hours of
seven and eight o'clock tonight, which means Angelina's can brace
for the worst in the hours.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Leading up to these events.
Speaker 6 (23:10):
So the first at Dodger Stadium as the Boys in
Blue of course take on the Atlanta Braves. The first
pitch is at seven ten, so parking gates open about
two hours before that, so you could expect the five, one, ten,
one oh one, and two freeways to be affected because
of that.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Right, there's gonna be fifty five thousand people or fifty
to fifty five thousand people that aren't normally in downtown LA.
They're in the Valley, Orange County, they're in Santa Clarita, Palmdale, Ventura,
they're not in downtown LA. So you're gonna get fifty
thousand people are not typically down there. Okay, that's the
first event.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
We got more and just twenty minutes later, the Kings
battle the Jets at the Crypto dot Com Arena.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Okay, the Jets are the number one team in hockey,
number one team in hockey. The Jets have a lot
of fans who are Canadian who live in Los Angeles.
So you're gonna get twenty thousand people to go see
the King's game tonight, twenty thousand people. Kings have a
terrific home record, and the Kings I think have beaten
(24:11):
them already twice this year, if memory serves me, right,
So all right, now we're at seventy to seventy five
thousand people in downtown LA that are not normally there.
Speaker 6 (24:22):
Doors open an hour and a half before puck job,
so expect to feel it on the five, ten, one, ten,
and one oh one freeways tonight. And finally, the We
HEARTLA concert is happening at the Hollywood Bowl.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Okay, we Heart LA at the Hollywood Bowl. Another fifteen
to twenty thousand people that normally aren't on the one
oh one freeway or in the area.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
That's at eight o'clock tonight as well. First responders and
people directly impacted by the wildfires have claimed all the
free tickets for the events, and gates open there at
six o'clock this evening. So the one oh one, one thirty.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Four, here we go. The same freeways right now.
Speaker 6 (25:01):
One one, and two will surely be affected.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Yeah, and this one's seventy will be affected. Kwango will
be affected. All the streets around there will be affected.
It's going to be tough to get in and out
of there tonight.
Speaker 6 (25:15):
Did so plan accordingly or avoid the area altogether?
Speaker 1 (25:19):
There you go, avoid the area all together, all right.
We did a story last week on this couple that
went down to Mexico. Their time share freaks. They love
the time shares, and they got arrested and were thrown
in a Mexican jail. All right, Well, there's two sides
to every story. We'll give you the time shares side
of the story as well when we come back. It
(25:41):
doesn't look like this timeshare couple, or as they call
it in the story, crime share couple, are totally innocent
when it comes to what happened in Mexico. We come back,
we'll tell you about that. Maybe another reason not to
get involved with time shares.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on de mail from
KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
We told you about a couple that went from Michigan
to Mexico, timeshare freaks. They love the timeshare and they
got thrown in jail. And they've been in jail for
a couple of weeks. So the story seemed odd, all right,
that you go to Mexico, you buy a timeshare, then
they throw you in jail because something happened, and we
only really got the couple's side of it. Now we're
(26:27):
getting the other side of it from the company that
sold the time shares and the resort.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
That's involved as well.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Let's find out if it's as easily reported last week
where the couple got screwed and thrown in jail, or
perhaps the couple did something did they deserve to be
thrown in jail for well, let's find out.
Speaker 7 (26:50):
After our story about Christy and Paul Akio arned earlier
this week, the company at the center of it all
is responding.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
It was just a bunch of lies, and I think
what the documents illustrate is this is a civil dispute.
Speaker 7 (27:03):
Harsh words from a Kyoh family attorney, John Manley after
Palace Resorts, the Florida based company that owns multiple resorts
and properties in Mexico, shared documents with CBS News Detroit
detailing the reasons behind its decision to pursue criminal fraud
charges against the couple. In a statement, the Palace company says, quote,
between twenty sixteen and twenty twenty one, the Achios knowingly
(27:25):
and willingly entered into nineteen separate membership agreements.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Okay, nineteen, Between what was it twenty.
Speaker 7 (27:31):
Between twenty sixteen and twenty twenty one.
Speaker 8 (27:33):
Okay, so five years they entered into nineteen nineteen separate
membership agreement nineteen separate membership agreements nineteen with the time
Shares nineteen time Shares.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Let's find out a little.
Speaker 7 (27:48):
More with Palace Elite investing over one point four million
dollars USD.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Okay, so somebody's got some money. They put a one
point four million dollars into time shares.
Speaker 7 (28:00):
In exchange for exclusive benefits and rates intended strictly for
personal use. This nearly fifty page contract shows the money
paid by the achios and the guidelines the couple were
expected to follow when using the properties.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
All right, so far, everybody's on board. There was a contract,
they were checks written.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Then what happened?
Speaker 7 (28:19):
Manly says, the decision to pursue criminal charges is overblown.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
We don't put people in prison in this country or
in Mexico for breach of contract.
Speaker 9 (28:28):
This is a time share, not a crime share.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Palace says, that's a pretty good line, right.
Speaker 9 (28:32):
This is a time share, not a crime share.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
This is a time share, not a crime share. I'm
surprised nobody's ever used that term before in selling time
shares or trying to get people out of time shares.
You know Dave's time share exit.
Speaker 9 (28:48):
This is a time share, not a crime share.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
It's a time share, not a crime Share.
Speaker 7 (28:52):
Palace says. In twenty twenty one, the Achios were found
to be in quote material breach of those agreements after
the company alleges the couple promoted and profited from their
benefits on social media, which they say is explicitly prohibited
under the terms of the contract.
Speaker 9 (29:07):
Tom, I look, we have the first amendment was we
had free speech.
Speaker 7 (29:11):
Pallis says. They notified the Achios of the violation and
sent the couple a waiver they signed in April twenty
twenty two where they acknowledge what they did and agree
to refrain from posting any future comments about the company.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Okay, I don't understand how they benefited, but maybe we'll
find out more here in the story. But they claim
that the couple benefited from their nineteen time shares.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
I don't know whether they were.
Speaker 9 (29:35):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I don't know how you benefit other than people think
you're crazy for getting into nineteen different contracts when it
comes to Timeshare Palas says.
Speaker 7 (29:43):
The Achios then began disputing their membership charges with their
credit card companies, ah getting more than one hundred thousand
dollars in reversed fees in these Facebook posts shared with
CBS News Detroit. The company alleges the Achios bragged about
these chargebacks and encouraged others to follow suit.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Ah, there's the problem. There's the problem.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
So what they're doing is teaching people how to get
involved with time shares, using the time share and then
denying the charges.
Speaker 7 (30:09):
Bragged about these chargebacks and encouraged others to follow suit.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Ah, okay.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
You know I heard a story when I was younger
when people would open up a store. You know, somebody
in your family or somebody in our family opened up
a brand news store. Maybe it was a general store.
Maybe they sold shoes or dresses or sporting equipment, and
they would pass along a either an email or an invitation. Hey,
(30:34):
we're you know, uncle Tommy's opening up a new tennis
store on April thirtieth, where you want to come by
and help him out. And then everybody in the family
would come by, and everybody would visit Tommy's, you know,
tennis store, and they'd all pay in cash to give
this guy a leg up. Now, a family opens up
(30:55):
a store, a general store or a sporting store, sporting
good store. You go to it you buy everything on
credit card, and then you get home and you deny
all the charges. That's where we are in life, and
I think that's what this couple did.
Speaker 7 (31:08):
That's when attorneys for Palace sent a cease and assist
letter accusing the couple of providing quote specific instructions to
current Palace Leape members.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Yeah, they're literally I mean, if this is true, and
again this is just allegedly, but if it's true, they're
teaching people how to buy into timeshare and then get
back to this country and reverse the charges. You don't
have to pay for it. And they wanted that to stop.
Speaker 7 (31:31):
On how to purportedly terminate their respective membership agreement using
illegal and fraudulent means. That led Palace to file a
criminal complaint against the couple in August twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
If you use inflamatory language about your hotel or your
vacation timeshare in Mexico, you go to jail. Really, that's
their complaint. These people have no business being in prison anywhere.
This is a contract.
Speaker 7 (31:55):
Dispute, Manly says. Palace recently offered the akiosa settlement if
the couple pay two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, signed
a non disclosure agreement, helped take down the Facebook group,
and publicly apologized. The family declined, calling it extortion.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
But more importantly, Palace could say, Oh, you violated this,
You've committed fraud. We're putting a red notice out on you.
We're going to charge you with a crime, and they'd
be right back in prison in Mexico. They can't sign it,
and they're not going to sign it.
Speaker 7 (32:20):
Well, Terrence, not only is this all happening, but Manly
tells me that the couple is still fighting that recent
order that gave Palace Resorts six more months to gather evidence,
and they also denied the Achio's request for house arrest
and ordered them to remain in jail until the next hearing.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
All right, it's getting crazy. By just another reason, it'd
be very skeptical of the time share. I don't know
who in twenty twenty five is entering into nineteen different
time share agreements. Nineteen it seems like, you know, one
would be plenty one would just be enough. But the
Akios nineteen of them. And we'll continue to follow that story.
(32:59):
All right, there's something you're doing in your car right now,
that starting this month, the cops are looking for you,
We'll go back. I'm gonna tell you what that is.
But you're probably doing it right now, and it's something
I do all the time. Bellio does it all the
time and admits it, and the cops are gonna be
looking for you starting this month, We'll go back. I'm
(33:19):
gonna tell you the simple thing you're doing right now
that can get you a ticket. We're live on KFI
AM six forty Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Now you can always hear us live on KFI AM
six forty four to seven pm Monday through Friday, and
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
It's KFI AM six forty and you're listening to The
Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It is The Conway Show.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
We start with breaking news, breaking news. The homeless problem
in La County has been solved. And here to tell
us the details, Michael Monks, So it's finally over the
homeless problem.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Don't put me on the spot to participate in your
April fools ruse. But they have made a significant change
in the way they're gonna deal with it. That is
not in April fools. I mean, you may think it's foolish, okay,
but they have at the county level voted just seconds
ago in favor of creating their own homeless department and
leaving the La Homeless Services Authority basically which they share
(00:43):
with the city.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Okay, so that's they refer to that as LASA they do. Okay.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Now, loss has got to be pissed because for a
long time they've been the king of homelessness and they
have not done a good enough job according to the county.
The city likes them, but the county not so much.
I'll tell you who doesn't like them.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
The federal court is mad at them and various accounting
audits are mad at LASA. The way, why is that
because there has been some poor accounting practices. There are
no official allegations of any fraud or any illegal activity
taking place there. They're just saying, look, your books aren't
managed well. We aren't necessarily aware of the outcomes that
you're seeking because you don't document them. When you pay
(01:22):
these third party homeless service providers a significant sum of
money to do something, we don't know where the money's going.
Some of this stuff isn't accounted for at all. And
the latest audit that came out really pushed County Supervisor
Lindsay Horvath over the edge where she said, it's time
to act now. We need to pull our money out
of LASA, create our own internal department at the county
(01:43):
level where we can provide direct and more oversight.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Okay, isn't that won't that be more of the same? Look,
I hope it's not. But isn't another isn't it another
big government agency taken over another government agency?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I think people across La County are right to be
cynical about any suggestions on how we're going to address
and fix homelessness. But the other thing is voters in
La County just months ago voted in favor of increasing
the sales tax that goes into effect today.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Right.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
All of that is to fund homeless and housing projects, right,
homelessness prevention. And it won by fifteen points, by the way,
So people are eager to see a resolution of this.
So I suppose, on one hand, yes, cynicism. On the
other it may be nice to see something drastic taking place,
to say, look, the buck is going to stop somewhere
(02:33):
else now and we're going to promise different results. Supervisor
Horbet says, No, this is not bigger and more government.
It's barely even a new department. It's an expansion of.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
What we have been doing. We're just going to be
in charge of the money now.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Okay, But but I can't get down on people who
think it's just moving money from one government agency to another.
And I don't see the track record with La LASA.
I don't see the track right where La County and
both of them even combine, we haven't seen much movement.
So I don't get down on people who are skeptical. No, no,
(03:07):
not at all.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
And you're right to note combined that's county and city. Right,
that could created LASA. And so when we think about
the money the county is talking about, this is money
that was already theirs that was being put into laws.
So the city was also putting money into LASA. This
has been your taxpayer money all along. Right, it's billions
of dollars, billions and billions of dollars. And yes, this
(03:28):
last audit said there's about two point three million dollars
that are accounted for. Technically, we know they're out there somewhere,
but we don't know all of the details.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
That's not chump change.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Were two point three million or billion billion billion, okay, yeah,
two point three billion dollars out.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
There, they could not properly figure out what was done for. Right,
Look if we if we all voted to raise the
sales tax by a quarter cent or half cent, it
was a quarter cent, now it's going to be a
half cent, and we saw a lot of improvement in homelessness.
I think we'd all be you know, thrilled that we're
paying another you know, quarter percent or half a cent,
(04:02):
but we just don't see exactly. I think you'd even
turn a blind eye to I don't care how they're
paying these third party providers. There's no more almost people
sleeping in front of my kids.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Exactly. I don't care where the money goes as.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
There's this bad accounting that's going on and a lack
of real results. Now LASSA would come back and say, look,
we said we were going to lower the homeless count
in La County and now they say this year will
be the second year in a row that they've been
able to do that. But is it demonstrable to the
naked eye? I mean, can you see and the underpasses
that you drive through outside of the business districts that
you frequent Arthur Park, are you noticing any differences? And
(04:34):
if you're not, then that's a problem for LASA. Lossa's director,
Valicia Kellum Adams came to the county Board of Supervisors
meeting today and said, look, you know everything that you want,
we're doing. We're doing everything that you want. She doesn't
want this relationship to end. Five members of the La
City Council came to the County Board of Supervisors meeting
today and said, please don't break up with us.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
On that sage.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Yes, well, what's desperate from their perspective is the county
does have a much larger government than the city. It
has a bigger budget, it has more people, and has
a lot more people already at the county level dedicated
to homeless works, whereas the city only has about a dozen.
According to a city councilman, Nitthia Rahman, who spoke today
and said, look, don't leave us, don't break up with us,
(05:17):
we need you, and Supervisor Horvath's shot back, look, we
basically pay for all of this anyway. We pay two
thirds of this situation. We're going to bring our money
in house and keep it. And now it leaves the
city with a question. If it's the LA homeless services
authorities at just the city, now it's going to be
a big responsibility, and it might motivate them to have
(05:40):
to take a similar move right, and they're going to
have their budget drastically cut. The city's already struggling financially,
so it's a big, big ass. The county will handle
a lot of money for cities in the county, including LA,
so based on the homeless count for example, how many
homeless people are in your city that might determine how
(06:01):
some of this funding is given.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
But and again, Michael Monks is with us. The La
County supervisors just voted. Was it unanimous or was it close?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
It was for to zero, with Supervisor Holly Mitchell abstaining.
She had some questions about the timing and whether we
were moving too fast on this, and so she decided
to abstain herts it was unanimous.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
It was otherwise unanimous.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And how much of then the budget will the La
County will LA County withhold then from Lawson.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Well, all of the money that they give the LASSO
will now be brought back into the county. And the
way that it will work is they hope to have
a CEO, a director of this new department by July first,
and by January of next year, all of the money
in the county was previously giving to LASSA will be
back in the county's coffers, including all of the money
that is generated from this new sales tax that goes
into effect today. They're not going to get any of it.
(06:49):
That is going to be handled strictly by the county.
And that's the money that will be divvied up among
the cities based on their homeless count in some capacity,
some percentage.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Of that, how many people work for Lawson. You know,
I don't know the exact count, but it's hundreds. So
they're gonna have to cut a lot of people.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah, and it's also possible that some of the people
who work at loss of will work in the new
County department.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Isn't that one hundred percent probable? I think it's one
hundred percent probable. In fact, I mean, don't just move.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
We'll just move loss OF people off their payroll to
the county payroll, and it'll be the same problem, the
same people, the same homelessness.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Supervisor Horvath said today that I want to be clear
that it's not the staff of LASA that has created
a lot of these problems. We're with you, and so
I think that does open the door to some of
those folks being part of whatever this new department finally
looks like when it is propped up on January the first.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
So if that is that is true, and I believe you,
I think that's going to happen as well. Isn't there
a sense of a stink of desperation for five city
council members to go to La County to say, please
don't cut Lossa's budget, and then they know that the
loss of employees are just going to move over and
get paid by the county anyway, Yeah, and I think
(08:01):
they're Then why did they show up?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Because if you take if LASA is dismantled, LA does
not have any type of input necessarily, at least not
formally the city the city the city in the way
that the county decides to handle its homeless funding. Right now,
LASA is co governed by the county and the city
through a board of Directors where each government entity has
an equal number of board representatives. Okay, So again that's
(08:27):
why when you hear folks from the county complaining about
loss or the city complaining about LASA, you are LASA.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Okay. But let me ask you a question.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Is I know LASA is Los Angeles and they worry
about the Los Angeles homeless in the city of LA.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Oh no, well no, they do the entire the entire capacity,
because the county is involved with it.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
A lot of the homeless.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
I mean, there's about seventy five thousand people roughly homeless
in the county, more than half of them are in
the City of Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
But where does LASA get their money from? Is it
all from the La County or does something come from
La City exactly, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
It is shared.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
More of it comes from the county, but that's because
it is a bigger entity. So they also get some
federal funding. And so even in this move that the
county has done, they acknowledge that LASA, whatever it looks like,
after all is said and done, would still be responsible
for certain things through the federal government, such as counting
the homeless people.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
So will losses still get their money from La City
right now?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I think the city has a decision to make because
if the city is putting in a certain amount of money,
but the other partner in that is not putting anything in,
how far is that money going to go? In fact,
city Councilman Tim Mcoscar, who represents you know, the port
cities in Los Angeles, he was one of the council
members who came groveling to the County Board of Supervisors
(09:44):
today and said, look, you can't when you break up
a dysfunctional family and create two dysfunctional families.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
These are his words.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
It's the basically what he's saying is the children who suffer,
but you know, the homeless services that will suffer.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Could this be the end of LASA. Oh yeah, it
could be absolutely no question about it. Okay, all right, monks,
thanks for coming. Hey, As a matter of fact, I
got a million more questions. Can you stay with us? Yeah, okay,
we want to talk about this is a big issue
in the in the City of Los Angeles, the County
of Los Angeles. This could be the end of LASA.
This could be the end of the organization who spend
(10:18):
billions of dollars on homelessness and now they could be
going away. This is a big day in Los Angeles,
in LA County, in La City. Remember April first, twenty
twenty five could be the day LASA died. And so
we'll come back and talk more about the Michael Monks
is a major story in La City and LA County.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Michael Monks is with us, and this is April first,
twenty twenty five. It may be remembered as the day
LASA died. And welcome back to kfive Monks. You got, monks.
This is a big deal.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
It's a very big deal because this now creates a
lot of one opportunity for the county to try some
different things to address homelessness, but it's also going to
force the City of Los Angeles' hands on how they
deal with what their plans were for the La Homeless
Services Authority, because they were co partners in this, and
now one of the partners has left the building, and
(11:20):
that leaves the City of Los Angeles, which has more
than half of the homeless people in the county within it.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
And how do we get to this level of anger
at las? How did how did La County you know,
sniff around? It was a judge that did this or
an audit?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, well there was a.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
There was an audit last year that came out first,
and it did not look good. The most recent one
that came out in March was ordered by a federal
judge who has been dealing with a lawsuit that involves
some downtown LA business owners who said to the county
and the city, you're not doing enough. That's commonly referred
to as the Alliance settlement. It was the La Alliance
(11:58):
for Human Rights that sued both governments, and now because
of that lawsuit, the city and the county they are
mandated to create a certain number of shelter beds for
homeless people every single year. Now, that is an ongoing case,
and there's a judge, David Carter, who monitors that at
the federal level. He ordered an audit because they couldn't
get their hands on the financial details from LASA, and
(12:20):
this latest audit that came out just showed such poor accounting.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Poor accounting or corruption.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Well, I don't think anybody has officially leveraged, leveled any
corruption charges, any idea that there was fraud or thievery
going on, But they were saying there was mismanagement in
the way that the money is handled. I mean they're
talking about writing checks these third party service providers with
no expectations on what the goals are. For example, if
you're a if you have Conway's homeless shelter downtown right
(12:49):
and thinking about it, yeah yeah, yeah, and you get
a check for two hundred grand, you would think that
part of your proposal would say, and this many people
will stay here, and this many people we've put in school,
this many people we put in employment programs. They weren't
getting any of that wow, or they weren't getting it enough.
For about two point three billion dollars that were spent.
So that was enough to tick off Supervisor Lindsay Horvath.
(13:10):
That was the final straw for her. She served on
the board of LASA, by the way, during a lot
of this, it should be noted.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
So it could be personal.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
She says, she's seen enough. It's time for the county
to bring its share of the money back in house
so that we can watch it directly.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Okay, So lasa's budget LA Homeless Services Authority, their budget
in twenty twenty three was eight hundred and forty five million.
It's probably closer to a billion now exactly. And the
billion dollars is going to be withheld from them and
is going to stay with the county supervisors in the
new department that they create.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Well, whatever the county would be giving to LASA would
be withheld. Loss also gets money from federal grant from
the federal government, from the city government grants and that
sort of thing. Now that's their budget, a billion dollars.
That's not all that's spent on homelessness, right, because the
county spends elsewhere, the city's elsewhere on other initiative, whether.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
It's in smaller cities, spends money.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
I mean, it is just billions and billions of dollars
that are spent on homelessness every year. It's just that
LASA is at the epicenter of it. They have their
tentacles in every single activity that's taking place in some capacity,
including all of those shelters, including all of those little
programs that you see, whether it's on skid row or
out in some other city. These are the people that
help direct those programs.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
So this is a real personal insult to Alicia Adams Kellum.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Well, she's the CEO of LASA.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
She is, indeed, and she came into LASA a couple
of years ago, tapped by Mayor Karen Bass, you know,
to come in and do this, and vowed to clean
up Loss's act because it has a long history of
bad accounting and questionable results. I mean, homelessness had been
going up for several years until last year's count. So
(14:51):
she promised more transparency, more accountability, better results, and better accounting.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
That hasn't all happened. Happened.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Is Mayor Bass embarrassed that she has brought a woman
in who has could have killed LASSA.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Well, I think if I'm Mayor Bess, I'm grateful for
anybody who takes the spotlight off me for a couple
of days, you know, so like, let's let's do that.
I don't think she would feel any shame at all,
because there were I told you before we went to break,
there were five members of the La City Council who
went to the Board of Supervisors meetings today. All of
them spoke, and all of them begged the county not
to leave Felicia Kellums Adams Adams Kellum, excuse.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Me, she's how long they give her?
Speaker 3 (15:26):
She showed up as if it were public comment, which
is when she got to speak, you got one minute
like everybody else. Really, they shut off the mic like
they do on anybody else. Supervisor Catherine Barker, who chairs
the Board of Supervisors, says, let's give her another thirty
seconds since she does lead the organization mantling it was.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I mean, I thought nothing.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Nothing that because look, I'm the guy covering this, right,
I'm sure I'm mobilized at that moment. I'm ready to
get a quote, like here's a good quote that we're
gonna have to use in the stories today.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I got nothing.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Nothing, I got nothing because she was kind of recap
what they have done, and so I was surprised that
they didn't yield the floor to her at least for
five minutest. Let's hear a little bit more lost monks
a quote. Yeah, loss has been around for thirty two years. Yeah,
and the homeless issue is worse now than it was
thirty two years ago.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yes, now they would not say that.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Well, certainly by volume, yes, but it got really bad
between twenty twenty during the pandemic and about three four
years after that. But the homeless count from twenty twenty
three finally showed a little bit of a decline after
six years of an increase. And they are saying the
early results, the early analysis of this year's count will
(16:35):
show that there were fewer people as well, so it
would be two years of a decline. But these declines minimal,
are pretty modest.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Again, and if you ask any LAPD officer on the street,
have you seen the homeless count go down?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
They all say no.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Well, first you'd have to find an LAPED officer on
the street, and that's not always easy.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Okay, So this, Lysia Adams, I gotta get this Rightlysia
Adams Kellum. Her salary is four hundred and thirty thousand
dollars a year, So she makes more than the mayor,
and she makes more than the president of the United States.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
That's right. How do you think President Trump feels about.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
That she's making thirty thousand dollars more than the president
of the United States.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
It's a hefty salary. It's a large organization. What you
often hear about these quasi government groups or even government
agencies like LADWP when they bring in these high priced
CEOs like Jenie Kinez who makes seven hundred and fifty
thousand dollars leading a municipal utility.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
At the DWP.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
At the DWP, you know, the supporters of that, the
proponents of that say, look, we've got to compete with
the private sector.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
But it's like you're not the private sector though.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Is that the one that wanted seven hundred thousand dollars
in security as well?
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yes, and that has not happened yet.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
By the way, in case you're won, is there any
Is there any when you go downtown, I know you
live downtown and you speak to you know, any of
the politicians or the woman who runs LASA or the
woman who runs DWP, do you have a sense that
there's that there's anybody who who feels the.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
I guess shame.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Is there anybody in politics downtown LA who feels who
has any way to feel shame?
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I'll speak as a resident and editorialize at my own risk.
I suppose I am constantly shocked at the state in
which LA finds itself and the lack of urgency with
which people proceed to address those issues.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
There's more urgency here at KFI with getting LA City
together than there.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Is with LA City.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
That's what I mean because I watch nearly every major
government meeting that takes place. I watch your surperprisers and
the council today all at the same time. You need
to get these stories. You are it and I just
you know, And then I go home to downtown and
I think, what in the world is going on here?
And these are not stupid people. I know that it's
easy all these stupid policies. They're not dumb. I mean,
(18:51):
they're smart. They know their communities, you know, and they
can be folks see like small town politicians too.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I mean, you can see how these folks get elected. Right.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
I'm glad you live downtown because if you lived out
in Chatsworth and you were covering downtown. You'd only stick
you know, stick your beak in there every once in
a while, or you know, dip your toe into the pond.
But you live down there, you know what it's like.
You know, the street lights don't work, the homeless population
is going through the roof. Every other storefront looks like
it's for lease, and then the other, and then every
(19:19):
store that's not for lease has bars on it.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
There's trash everywhere. It's an asshole.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
And this is the second largest city in this country.
It's one of the most important cities in the entire
world because of you know, we have Hollywood, but we
also have this major port that's here. I mean, la
right matters globally, and the fact that it looks the
way it does is just so shocking, and you just
don't hear the urgency from folks about time to address it.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
There's no other city that looks like that. When you
go visit New York City, it's Chicago. Chicago's beautiful downtown Chicago.
All of these cities have pat Denver. They're all beautiful.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
They got homelessness, they got violence, you know, I mean,
big cities have these problems, but none of them are
filthy as Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, we are the king of filth and we and
LASSA also was the ones I believe that spend seven
hundred and forty thousand dollars per condo when they built
a building.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Well, they're involved in some of that low income or
homeless housing programs that that's not necessarily a loss of project,
but they do help coordinate in some capacity. There are
different organizations. That was the Wineguard Center, for example, which
is also in skid Row, that built that one, And yeah,
there are It's extremely expensive to build here and it
just raises the question, I mean, how much how fast
will all this new money go without the results we
(20:34):
want to see?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Okay, you got to come on with us more often.
This is great.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
There might be some finally, some movement in downtown LA
the way we address homelessness.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Well, we won't see this a department set up until
January first. We'll see a director hired by July, but
we won't see the full impact until next year.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Okay, that's fine, but it'll be here shortly. Got to
keep our eye on and we'll listen to you. On
Saturday Night seven and nine pm. Michael Monks reports all right,
you're the best buddy. All right, he goes Michael Monks.
When we come back, we'll tell you about the three
events that are going on downtown Los Angeles to night
that could have you in a traffic nightmare.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Traffic is a nightmare in southern California. And I think
it's worse on weekends than it is during the week.
At least during the week, you know that there's gonna
be traffic in the morning, afternoon or you know, eleven
am to two pm. You know, hit and miss with traffic,
and then it gets to be a nightmare again between
(21:37):
three point thirty four o'clock and seven o'clock. And you
know the hours to stay off the freeways during the week,
But man, on weekends you get screwed. I don't know
what the hell happened in southern California, but weekends sometimes
when I go to del Mar, I'll drive from Burbank
to del Mar. It's one hundred and forty miles or so,
(21:59):
and it takes nearly four hours, four hours, and so
I don't go down that much. You know, I'll if
I do, I'll leave at ten pm, get down there
by midnight, and then come home the next night at
ten pm or eleven pm and get home by you know,
midnight or one am, just to avoid the traffic. And
I think we all are in the same boat where
(22:22):
we constantly avoid going out and doing things that we
like to do because of traffic. You know, we always
check traffic whenever you go to do anything. You know,
you can go to Palm Springs, Oh, let me see
on ways how long that is.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
You're going to go to Las Vegas. Oh, let me
see how long that is? You know where traffic is.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Traffic is always on our minds always, and we hate
being stuck in it. It's not great. It is a nightmare.
And today, especially in downtown Los Angeles, it's going to
be a problem for a lot of people. We got
three events going on tonight tonight in downtown La Listen up.
Speaker 6 (23:01):
We have three events all starting between the hours of
seven and eight o'clock tonight, which means Angelina's can brace
for the worst in the hours.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Leading up to these events.
Speaker 6 (23:10):
So the first at Dodger Stadium as the Boys in
Blue of course take on the Atlanta Braves. The first
pitch is at seven ten, so parking gates open about
two hours before that, so you could expect the five, one, ten,
one oh one, and two freeways to be affected because
of that.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Right, there's gonna be fifty five thousand people or fifty
to fifty five thousand people that aren't normally in downtown LA.
They're in the Valley, Orange County, they're in Santa Clarita, Palmdale, Ventura,
they're not in downtown LA. So you're gonna get fifty
thousand people are not typically down there. Okay, that's the
first event.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
We got more and just twenty minutes later, the Kings
battle the Jets at the Crypto dot Com Arena.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Okay, the Jets are the number one team in hockey,
number one team in hockey. The Jets have a lot
of fans who are Canadian who live in Los Angeles.
So you're gonna get twenty thousand people to go see
the King's game tonight, twenty thousand people. Kings have a
terrific home record, and the Kings I think have beaten
(24:11):
them already twice this year, if memory serves me, right,
So all right, now we're at seventy to seventy five
thousand people in downtown LA that are not normally there.
Speaker 6 (24:22):
Doors open an hour and a half before puck job,
so expect to feel it on the five, ten, one, ten,
and one oh one freeways tonight. And finally, the We
HEARTLA concert is happening at the Hollywood Bowl.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Okay, we Heart LA at the Hollywood Bowl. Another fifteen
to twenty thousand people that normally aren't on the one
oh one freeway or in the area.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
That's at eight o'clock tonight as well. First responders and
people directly impacted by the wildfires have claimed all the
free tickets for the events, and gates open there at
six o'clock this evening. So the one oh one, one thirty.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Four, here we go. The same freeways right now.
Speaker 6 (25:01):
One one, and two will surely be affected.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Yeah, and this one's seventy will be affected. Kwango will
be affected. All the streets around there will be affected.
It's going to be tough to get in and out
of there tonight.
Speaker 6 (25:15):
Did so plan accordingly or avoid the area altogether?
Speaker 1 (25:19):
There you go, avoid the area all together, all right.
We did a story last week on this couple that
went down to Mexico. Their time share freaks. They love
the time shares, and they got arrested and were thrown
in a Mexican jail. All right, Well, there's two sides
to every story. We'll give you the time shares side
of the story as well when we come back. It
(25:41):
doesn't look like this timeshare couple, or as they call
it in the story, crime share couple, are totally innocent
when it comes to what happened in Mexico. We come back,
we'll tell you about that. Maybe another reason not to
get involved with time shares.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
You're listening to Tim Conway Junior on de mail from
KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
We told you about a couple that went from Michigan
to Mexico, timeshare freaks. They love the timeshare and they
got thrown in jail. And they've been in jail for
a couple of weeks. So the story seemed odd, all right,
that you go to Mexico, you buy a timeshare, then
they throw you in jail because something happened, and we
only really got the couple's side of it. Now we're
(26:27):
getting the other side of it from the company that
sold the time shares and the resort.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
That's involved as well.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Let's find out if it's as easily reported last week
where the couple got screwed and thrown in jail, or
perhaps the couple did something did they deserve to be
thrown in jail for well, let's find out.
Speaker 7 (26:50):
After our story about Christy and Paul Akio arned earlier
this week, the company at the center of it all
is responding.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
It was just a bunch of lies, and I think
what the documents illustrate is this is a civil dispute.
Speaker 7 (27:03):
Harsh words from a Kyoh family attorney, John Manley after
Palace Resorts, the Florida based company that owns multiple resorts
and properties in Mexico, shared documents with CBS News Detroit
detailing the reasons behind its decision to pursue criminal fraud
charges against the couple. In a statement, the Palace company says, quote,
between twenty sixteen and twenty twenty one, the Achios knowingly
(27:25):
and willingly entered into nineteen separate membership agreements.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Okay, nineteen, Between what was it twenty.
Speaker 7 (27:31):
Between twenty sixteen and twenty twenty one.
Speaker 8 (27:33):
Okay, so five years they entered into nineteen nineteen separate
membership agreement nineteen separate membership agreements nineteen with the time
Shares nineteen time Shares.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Let's find out a little.
Speaker 7 (27:48):
More with Palace Elite investing over one point four million
dollars USD.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Okay, so somebody's got some money. They put a one
point four million dollars into time shares.
Speaker 7 (28:00):
In exchange for exclusive benefits and rates intended strictly for
personal use. This nearly fifty page contract shows the money
paid by the achios and the guidelines the couple were
expected to follow when using the properties.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
All right, so far, everybody's on board. There was a contract,
they were checks written.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Then what happened?
Speaker 7 (28:19):
Manly says, the decision to pursue criminal charges is overblown.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
We don't put people in prison in this country or
in Mexico for breach of contract.
Speaker 9 (28:28):
This is a time share, not a crime share.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Palace says, that's a pretty good line, right.
Speaker 9 (28:32):
This is a time share, not a crime share.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
This is a time share, not a crime share. I'm
surprised nobody's ever used that term before in selling time
shares or trying to get people out of time shares.
You know Dave's time share exit.
Speaker 9 (28:48):
This is a time share, not a crime share.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
It's a time share, not a crime Share.
Speaker 7 (28:52):
Palace says. In twenty twenty one, the Achios were found
to be in quote material breach of those agreements after
the company alleges the couple promoted and profited from their
benefits on social media, which they say is explicitly prohibited
under the terms of the contract.
Speaker 9 (29:07):
Tom, I look, we have the first amendment was we
had free speech.
Speaker 7 (29:11):
Pallis says. They notified the Achios of the violation and
sent the couple a waiver they signed in April twenty
twenty two where they acknowledge what they did and agree
to refrain from posting any future comments about the company.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Okay, I don't understand how they benefited, but maybe we'll
find out more here in the story. But they claim
that the couple benefited from their nineteen time shares.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
I don't know whether they were.
Speaker 9 (29:35):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I don't know how you benefit other than people think
you're crazy for getting into nineteen different contracts when it
comes to Timeshare Palas says.
Speaker 7 (29:43):
The Achios then began disputing their membership charges with their
credit card companies, ah getting more than one hundred thousand
dollars in reversed fees in these Facebook posts shared with
CBS News Detroit. The company alleges the Achios bragged about
these chargebacks and encouraged others to follow suit.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Ah, there's the problem. There's the problem.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
So what they're doing is teaching people how to get
involved with time shares, using the time share and then
denying the charges.
Speaker 7 (30:09):
Bragged about these chargebacks and encouraged others to follow suit.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Ah, okay.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
You know I heard a story when I was younger
when people would open up a store. You know, somebody
in your family or somebody in our family opened up
a brand news store. Maybe it was a general store.
Maybe they sold shoes or dresses or sporting equipment, and
they would pass along a either an email or an invitation. Hey,
(30:34):
we're you know, uncle Tommy's opening up a new tennis
store on April thirtieth, where you want to come by
and help him out. And then everybody in the family
would come by, and everybody would visit Tommy's, you know,
tennis store, and they'd all pay in cash to give
this guy a leg up. Now, a family opens up
(30:55):
a store, a general store or a sporting store, sporting
good store. You go to it you buy everything on
credit card, and then you get home and you deny
all the charges. That's where we are in life, and
I think that's what this couple did.
Speaker 7 (31:08):
That's when attorneys for Palace sent a cease and assist
letter accusing the couple of providing quote specific instructions to
current Palace Leape members.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Yeah, they're literally I mean, if this is true, and
again this is just allegedly, but if it's true, they're
teaching people how to buy into timeshare and then get
back to this country and reverse the charges. You don't
have to pay for it. And they wanted that to stop.
Speaker 7 (31:31):
On how to purportedly terminate their respective membership agreement using
illegal and fraudulent means. That led Palace to file a
criminal complaint against the couple in August twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
If you use inflamatory language about your hotel or your
vacation timeshare in Mexico, you go to jail. Really, that's
their complaint. These people have no business being in prison anywhere.
This is a contract.
Speaker 7 (31:55):
Dispute, Manly says. Palace recently offered the akiosa settlement if
the couple pay two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, signed
a non disclosure agreement, helped take down the Facebook group,
and publicly apologized. The family declined, calling it extortion.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
But more importantly, Palace could say, Oh, you violated this,
You've committed fraud. We're putting a red notice out on you.
We're going to charge you with a crime, and they'd
be right back in prison in Mexico. They can't sign it,
and they're not going to sign it.
Speaker 7 (32:20):
Well, Terrence, not only is this all happening, but Manly
tells me that the couple is still fighting that recent
order that gave Palace Resorts six more months to gather evidence,
and they also denied the Achio's request for house arrest
and ordered them to remain in jail until the next hearing.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
All right, it's getting crazy. By just another reason, it'd
be very skeptical of the time share. I don't know
who in twenty twenty five is entering into nineteen different
time share agreements. Nineteen it seems like, you know, one
would be plenty one would just be enough. But the
Akios nineteen of them. And we'll continue to follow that story.
(32:59):
All right, there's something you're doing in your car right now,
that starting this month, the cops are looking for you,
We'll go back. I'm gonna tell you what that is.
But you're probably doing it right now, and it's something
I do all the time. Bellio does it all the
time and admits it, and the cops are gonna be
looking for you starting this month, We'll go back. I'm
(33:19):
gonna tell you the simple thing you're doing right now
that can get you a ticket. We're live on KFI
AM six forty Conway Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Now you can always hear us live on KFI AM
six forty four to seven pm Monday through Friday, and
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
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